Adam Clarke from Praxis 42 discusses what the regs don’t tell you about first aid…
Adam Clarke, Managing Director (Consulting) Praxis42.
Having trained first aiders and ‘appointed persons’ in an organisation is something we’re all familiar with. The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 may seem timeless, but with the way we work evolving thanks to influences like developing technology and the pandemic, there are also some additional things to consider when we think about First-Aid Regulations, even if they’re not explicitly mentioned.
First aid has always been with us. It’s one of those basic human triggers: if someone is injured, it’s in most people’s nature to want to help. Actually pinpointing when a formal kind of first aid started to take shape is more of a problem however. We have references to basic first aid as early as the Roman army, which had designated combat medics amongst its ranks.
As you’d imagine, the battlefield continued to be the place where first-aid knowledge and expertise continued to be developed through the centuries, until German Friedrich Esmarch used his experience as a military surgeon to publish a series of works based on what he saw as best practice in the middle of the 19th Century. Many point to these as the beginning of modern first aid, with the formation of St John Ambulance and St Andrew’s Ambulance Association following not long after in England and Scotland.
